UK: Government studies ‘spamming’

Barbara Roche, UK minister for telecoms, has said that Britain’s Data Protection Registrar is working on a proposal to prevent people receiving unsolicited e-mails through the insertion of suppression markers in their Internet addresses – a technique generally known amongst Internet users as “spamming” – and that the Direct Marketing Association is working on ideas for an e-mail preference scheme. The government plans to consult interested parties later this year on the implementation of the EU’s Data Protection Directive.